Gobena Ameni

Gobena Ameni joined Addis Ababa University (AAU) in September 1990 for undergraduate study and graduated with DVM in July 1996. He started his career as an Assistant Lecturer and Researcher in 1997 at the Addis Ababa University. Later he joined the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (UK) on sandwich basis and obtained his PhD in Microbiology in February 2009. He also obtained Diploma of Imperial College in Immunology in 2009. Gobena Ameni is still working in AAU and his research interests include immunology/vaccinology and molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis (both bovine and human TB) and histoplasmosis (equine and human histoplasmosis).

Scientific contributions include:

Evaluation of the efficacy of vaccines:  Dr. Ameni and his colleagues used a natural challenge for the evaluation of the efficacy of BCG in bovine calves (Ameni et al., 2010; Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 17,1533-1538; Transbound. Emerg. Dis. DOI: 10.1111/tbed.12618).

Epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in Ethiopia: Dr. Ameni and his co-workers have observed that both breed and husbandry affect the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis (Ameni et al., 2006: Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 13, 1030-1036: Ameni et al., 2007: Clin. Vaccine Immunol 14(10),1356-1361).

Molecular epidemiology of human tuberculosis in Ethiopia:  Dr Ameni and his colleagues have studied molecular epidemiology of human tuberculosis in Ethiopia (Diriba et al., 2013: Int. J. Tuberc. Lung. Dis 17(2), 246-50; Garedew et a., 2013: Int. J. Tuberc Lung. Dis. 17(8), 1076-81; Belay et al., 2014: BioMed Res. Int.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/238532; Nuru et al., 2015: BioMed Res. Int.  2015, 1-9. Bedawi et al., 2017: BMC Infect. Dis. 17:184).  

Drug sensitivity patterns of M. tuberculosis isolated in Ethiopia: Dr Ameni and his colleagues have studied the drug sensitivity patterns of M. tuberculosis in Ethiopia (Abate et al., 2014: Int. J. Tuberc. Lung. Dis 18(8), 946-951; Adane et al., 2015: BMC Public Hlth 15:572; Bedawi et al., 2016: Int.J. Mycobacteriol. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmyco2016.06.005; Tilahun et al., 2018: PLoS One 13(2):e0193083)

Appraisal of a new cut-off value for the comparative intradermal tuberculin test for zebu cattle use: Dr. Ameni and his colleagues appraised a new cut-off value for the comparative intradermal tuberculin test in zebu cattle (Ameni et al., 2008: Clin. Vaccine Immunol. 15 (8), 1272-1276).

Isolation of novel strains of M. bovis and submission to the international database: Dr Ameni and his group identified five new strains of M. bovis and submitted to the international M. bovis database (Ameni et al., 2007: Vet. Rec. 161, 782-786; Ameni et al., 2010: Vet. Rec. 167, 138-141; Mamo et al., 2011: Plos One 6(1), e158662)

Isolation of M. tuberculosis from cattle lesions: Dr. Ameni and his co-workers isolated M. tuberculosis from lesions of cattle in Ethiopia (Ameni et al., 2011: Vet. Rec. 188 (3), 359-361; Ameni et al., 2013; Plos One 8(10):e76891).

Epidemiology and diagnosis of equine histoplasmosis: Dr Ameni and his co-workers have studied these subjects extensively (Ameni and Terefe, 2004: Prev.Vet.Med. 66, 93-99; Ameni, 2006: Vet.J. 172 (1), 160-165; Ameni et al., 2006: Vet. J. 171,358-362)